Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Explore the deep humanity of Jesus’ cry, “Why have you forsaken me?”—and how it speaks to our pain, questions, and hope in the middle of suffering and silence.

“Why Have You Forsaken Me?” When Jesus Entered the Silence

I remember moments when I felt like God went quiet.

One of those moments was during the civil conflict in my country. I watched things unravel. People fleeing, lives lost, justice nowhere to be found. I asked God honest questions: Where are you? Don’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you care?

There was pain inside me and all around me.

That’s why I stop at Jesus’ words on the cross. Not just because they’re famous but because they’re real.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

He said that. Not in comfort or control, but in agony. Hanging, bleeding, fully human. In that moment, Jesus didn’t feel victorious. He felt abandoned.

That tells me something. It tells me He didn’t avoid our pain. He stepped right into it. He took it on. Not just to relate, but to carry it. The weight of sin. The silence of God. The loneliness we all feel at some point. He entered it all.

In my digital mission experience, I’ve received messages from people going through unspeakable pain. One person wrote, “Please don’t respond with the story of Job. My suffering is too much for that example.”

That message has stayed with me. It reminds me that many carry pain that feels beyond even biblical comparisons.

I don’t have all the answers to why suffering happens. But I do know this. God didn’t stay distant. He didn’t send a message from heaven. He came down. He lived with us. And He faced the darkest human experience so that we wouldn’t be alone in ours.

I think of that often when I pray and feel like I’m not heard. When I watch the news and feel helpless. When I walk with people going through grief that words can’t fix.

Jesus knows.

And more than that, He overcame. He didn’t just die. He rose. That means pain and death don’t get the last word.

When I follow Him, I follow someone who’s been through it. Not just a teacher or a prophet. Someone who stepped into suffering, stayed there, and broke through it.

That’s why I trust Him.

Watch: My Last Day – A powerful animated short film by Jesus Film Project, portraying Jesus’ final hours and the hope that followed.